Recover Missing Journals After Changing iCloud Sync Settings

If your journals disappeared after toggling iCloud Syncing off (or off and back on) in Zinnia, don't worry — your journals are most likely still on your device. When iCloud Syncing is turned off, Zinnia moves your journals from iCloud to local storage. They aren't deleted; they're simply stored in a different location within the app.

Important: Do not delete or reinstall Zinnia while troubleshooting. Doing so may result in permanent data loss.

 

How to Recover Your Journals

Follow these steps to locate and restore your journals:

  1. Turn off iCloud Syncing 
    Open Zinnia, tap (...) icon in the top right corner, go to Options, and set iCloud Syncing to Off.
  2. Look for the "Previous iCloud Storage" folder
    Return to your main journals view. You should now see a folder called Previous iCloud Storage. Your journals that were moved during the sync change will be inside this folder.
  3. Open and verify your journals
    Tap into the folder and confirm that your journals and their contents are intact.
  4. Re-enable iCloud Syncing (optional)
    If you'd like to continue using iCloud, go back to Options and turn iCloud Syncing back On. When prompted, choose Copy to move your recovered journals back to iCloud so they stay synced across your devices.

Why This Happens

When you turn off iCloud Syncing, Zinnia transfers your journals from iCloud to your device's local storage to keep them accessible. This transfer happens automatically, but the journals are stored in a separate "Previous iCloud Storage" folder rather than appearing in your main journal list. Turning iCloud Syncing back on without first accessing local storage won't automatically merge these journals — you need to follow the steps above to recover and re-sync them.

Still need help? If these steps don't resolve the issue, please reach out to our support team with as many details as possible.